Reversal 20: Information
by Higuchimon
Summary: When Haou wants answers, he'll ask questions. And if he doesn't get what he wants, people suffer.


**Series:** Reversal||**Story:** Information  
**Characters:** Orgene, Lynd, Juudai||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 1-1||**Words:** 1,500  
**Genre:** Drama||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing Challenge, C47, near past tense  
**Notes:** This takes place in my Reversal AU, before Juudai has Johan and Ryou to play with. It also offers a hint of spoilers for an upcoming fic.  
**Summary:** When Haou wants answers, he'll ask questions. And if he doesn't get what he wants, people suffer.

* * *

Orgene gripped the arms of his throne as everything shook around him. Lynd stumbled as she entered the chamber, fear clearly written across her face. He dragged himself to his feet and reached towards her.

"He came, didn't he?" He didn't need to ask. The shrieks rising outside told him everything that he needed to know.

"We should leave. _You_ should leave." She took his hands in hers, gazing into his eyes. "You need to get to Pegasus. I've heard there are people gathering there."

His lips pressed together. "A resistance." He'd never been fond of such things – few rulers were, so few of them went out of their way to rule their realms to spark such things. But this Yuuki Juudai – this Haou – cared nothing for that.

_Five years since he started this madness._ And in those five years, he'd amassed the largest realm that the world had ever seen. It didn't seem as if he planned on stopping any time soon. Perhaps not ever.

Lynd nodded, squeezing his hands. "They could use someone like you. You can't stay here – he kills the leaders of the realms, you _know_ that."

He started to say something. The words never came, as the castle shook even harder, a huge crash and explosion wiping away whatever he would have said. He stumbled away from her as she fell back, sand and glass shattering all over them.

A voice rose, one that sounded far too amused for the words spoken.

"Oh, there's no need for you to run. I'm going to kill you, but if you run, you'll just annoy me."

Haou stood in the ruins of what had been the entryway into Orgene's throne room. He wore the spiky black armor that symbolized him, but with no sign of his helmet, and a cocky smirk spread across his features.

"And if you annoy me, you'll die screaming – instead of just dying."

Orgene stepped in between Haou and Lynd. Under no circumstances would he permit harm to come to her, or any other citizen of his realm.

"What do you want here?" Orgene asked, resting one hand where his deck lay. He'd heard Haou wasn't just a ruthless conqueror, but also a terrifying duelist. He wondered how much of that was true and how much rumor spun out of fear. Perhaps he'd find out now.

"Oh, I think you know. Misgarth belongs to me now. But I do have a question, before I finish you off." Haou's golden gaze riveted on Orgene. "Your realm used to be allied to Queen Bijou, before Norbu fell."

Orgene started to shake his head; Norbu fell to the Fallen Angels when he was still a small child. Haou would hardly have been born then. Why would he even care?

"Queen Bijou's children – where are they? Did she send them here?"

Orgene wasn't certain if he could have been more confused. He shook his head. "I don't know. My parents never spoke of that." They'd spoken of Norbu's fall, of course, and for years the guard on Norbu's border tripled, in case the Fallen Angels began to look towards Misgarth. Such hadn't happened, at least not until Haou began his own invasion.

"Hm. I would _like_ to believe you," Haou said, twisted amusement lighting his eyes as he strolled forward. "But I can't say that I do. I really can't. I suspect that you're trying to lie to me to protect them."

Lynd darted around Haou, surging towards him, a sharp dagger in her hands. He so seldom saw her with weapons that even Orgene forgot on occasion that she knew how to wield them. She raised her blade to strike, only for a surge of shadow from Haou to suspend her in midair.

He stepped around her without a word, his attention all on Orgene. "So I'm going to have to ask you again. Where are Bijou's children? And do give me the answer I want to hear."

Orgene's hand began to fall to his own deck. Before he could make contact, threads of shadow coiled around his wrists and slammed him against the remains of the wall. He'd barely noticed how much damage his throne room experienced until now – shards of stone scattered everywhere, the tapestries on the walls shredded, and the screams of his warriors hanging in the air.

"Do you want what you want to hear," Orgene groaned, attempting to breathe and not doing a very good job of it. "Or do you want the truth?"

Haou smiled at him. "But what I want to hear _is_ the truth. So. Speak. Give me the answer and I'll give you a reward." He cast a glance back toward Lynd. "You care for her, do you not? Give me my answer and I'll allow her to live."

His lips quirked. "Don't give it to me and " He made no move that Orgene could see, nor could he see exactly what happened to Lynd. What he knew was that she screamed, head falling backward, struggling uselessly.

Orgene dragged at his own restraints, which did absolutely nothing. His heart pounded as he stared into those frosty golden eyes.

"I don't know," he murmured, Lynd's screams still echoing from the ruins of the walls. Haou frowned as he strolled closer.

"I still can't say that I believe you. Everything that I've learned indicates this is where Bijou would have sent them. So either you're lying or you were never told." He tilted his head to one side in thought. "Let's find out. And don't forget I gave you the chance to tell me freely."

If he'd been able to do so, Orgene would've ducked away, taken Lynd and fled as she'd tried to get him to do before. The bonds kept him where he was and he could not stop Haou's hand from fitting against his forehead, a sweep of darkness and ice coursing through him.

Orgene thrashed as best that he could, breath stuttering in his lungs, heart pounding, a thousand scattered images flashing through his mind, fingers of shadow prying into all parts of him. He saw so much that he'd all but forgotten – how he'd been so lonely growing up, his mother and father more busy with ruling the realm than taking care of him, letting an endless stream of servants raise him, including Lynd as time rolled onward.

Bit by bit, he'd realized that he wasn't alone, that he would always have Lynd by his side, and as he grew to know his people better, he learned that they cared about him as well. His loneliness shattered and fell away with the passage of time and the assumption of the throne.

But nowhere was there anything about any children of Bijou, the royal family of Norbu, those who could incarnate the Light of Creation.

Orgene wasn't certain when Haou finally stepped out of his mind. What he knew was he opened his eyes to find Haou a short distance away, the echoes of Lynd's screams hanging in the air still, and his breath short in his lungs.

_Do you believe me now?_ He wanted to gasp but he couldn't bring himself to speak. He shuddered, still bound to the wall. Haou glanced toward him.

"I suppose you don't know anything. At least not anything _I_ find useful."

Orgene ached to ask if this meant they would be allowed to go free. He knew they wouldn't be; Haou wasn't that sort of person. But he wanted to ask.

"I am going to kill you both," Haou said, as casually as someone else might suggest having dinner. "But you don't have to worry. I'm not going to kill you right now." He strolled – somehow doing that in full armor – between the two of them. "Only once I've killed everyone here loyal to you will I kill you. So that you die knowing there's no one to avenge you and no one who will care that you're gone."

Haou sounded far too chipper. No one who slaughtered people on this scale should sound so _cheerful_ about it. Yet he did. He sounded as if the thought of killing people thrilled him.

It probably did. Everything Orgene heard about him said that it did. Haou hadn't yet scraped twenty-five and already he'd done so much evil.

"How can you be such a monster?" Lynd could only barely make her voice heard, attempting to lift her head and barely succeeding at it. Orgene would have sacrificed his own soul if he knew it would get her out of there alive, or save even one person of his realm. But he'd never heard of someone escaping Haou's army, especially when they were face to face with Haou himself.

"Hm? Oh." Haou's lips turned upward. On other people it might have been a smile. Orgene refused to describe it as such now. If he had dreams after this they would feature that expression. "That's easy. Practice. Quite a bit of practice."

* * *

**The End**

**Notes:** The fic I have coming soon will have more information on why Juudai wants to know these things. And on what happened.


End file.
